Thursday, April 9, 2009

If we could stop time . . .

Eadweard Muybridge showed an obsession with stopping time and freezing motion. He is known primarily for his early use of multiple cameras to capture motion, and his zoopraxiscope. The zoopraxiscope was a device for projecting motion pictures which pre-dated the celluloid film strip. He is considered a pioneer in visual studies of human and animal locomotion.

Eadweard James Muybridge is perhaps best known as the man who proved that a horse has all four hooves off the ground at the peak of a gallop.

Trivia bit: In October 1874, Eadweard Muybridge's personal life was shattered when he was arrested for the murder of his wife's lover, whom Eadweard Muybridge suspected was the father of the son born in April that year. Eadweard Muybridge was held in prison for several months, but after a lengthy trial he was acquitted in February 1875. His wife, who had unsuccessfully sued for divorce, died later that year, leaving him to support the child. (On a personal note, I cannot help but wonder if that was the germ of his obsession with stopping time - I am not the only one to wonder check out Tesseract)